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Five Bible Questions and Answers
That Will Change Your Life
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.
Words have great power. Years ago I was listening to a co-worker who was speaking about some of his worldly amibitions. Without thinking, I blurted out to him the Scripture: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world (1 John 2:15, KJV)”. The nonplussed look on his face showed that the God's word had reached deep inside him and had shaken him. There is great power in the word of God.
•• In today's message we will look at five bible questions and answers which can change lives — your life or the lives of others.
Acts 9:1-5, 20 ...[5] “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.... [20] At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.”
1) “ ‘WHO ARE YOU, Lord?’ ... ‘I am JESUS.’ ”
•• At the Creation, a spiritual hunger was planted in us.
• Look at the “atheistic” ex-Soviet Union now. A Christian scholar-historian friend told me that, in his opinion, the greatest miracle of the 20th century was the survival of the Russian Orthodox Church. Russians simply never lost their innate hunger for God, despite the Soviet oppression of the church.
• I recall how, as a nine- and ten-year-old in Virginia, I used to go with a friend to Monday night church services. On my own, voluntarily, simply because I had a hunger for God built in by the Lord.
•• Virtually every culture in history has had deities.
• Human souls are asking, “WHO ARE you, Lord?”
•• The fall of Adam and Eve left a void and a hunger for God.
• Deep inside, that unconverted friend, that neighbor, that coworker is crying, “Who are you, Lord?”
• Be ready with the answer: “I am JESUS.”
Acts 16:26-31 ...[30] [The jailer] then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” [31] They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.”
2) “What must I do TO BE SAVED?”
•• The context of the question was not theological, but deliverance from death. Quite simply, the jailer feared for his life.
• Paul replied, not superficially, but at the most profound level.
• Paul was saying, “Believe in JESUS” for:
• Deliverance from sin and its consequences.
• Deliverance from sickness and infirmities.
• Deliverance from hell to heaven.
• Deliverance from death to eternal life.
•• The world seeks the proverbial Fountain of Youth.
• Paul replied — Jesus offers the fountain of LIFE!
•• Every day you run into people asking in their hearts, “How do I get out of this MESS my life is in?”
• Be ready with the answer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!”
Acts 22:8-10 “ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth...’ [10] ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ ”
3) “What shall I do, Lord?” In a parallel quote (Acts 9:6, KJV), Paul asks, “Lord, WHAT wilt thou HAVE ME TO DO?”
•• It’s not enough simply to be saved and going to heaven.
•• A life-changing question for each of us to ask is: “Lord, WHAT wilt thou have ME to DO?”
•• The newly-converted Paul asked it sincerely, and Jesus changed him:
• from a blasphemer to a preacher of the Gospel
• from a persecutor to a bringer of joy to others
• from a hater of Christians to a lover of Christians
• from a man zealous for the wrong things to a man zealous for the things of God
•• Ask this daily, life-changing question each morning: “Lord, what wilt thou have ME to DO?”
Acts 19:1-2, 6 ...There he found some disciples [2] and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ... [6] When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
4) “DID you receive the HOLY SPIRIT when you BELIEVED?”
•• Curiously, some Christians are offended by this thoroughly biblical question. They reply (erroneously, sad to say), "Yes, I received all of the Holy Spirit I'll ever need when I got saved."
• Paul considered them disciples of the Lord (vs. 1). They had “believed” (vs. 2) and been baptized (vs. 3). These were Christians in every sense of the word.
• Paul asked these Christians a valid question (valid then, and valid today!) — Have you believing, baptized, Christian disciples been filled with the Spirit?
• They had not. So Paul laid his hands on them, and they did receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit (as in Acts 2:1-4 and Acts 10:44-47) and "spoke in tongues" (vs. 6).
• Don’t be ashamed of being an Acts 2 Pentecostal. Peter and the other apostles were just such — that is, biblical Pentecostals. Mary the mother of Jesus was, too.
• Jesus Himself — named in all four Gospels as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit — had made them Pentecostals.
• Don't hold back for fear of offending Christians.
•• Memorize and ask this exact biblical question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
Acts 2:36-38 “...[37] “Brothers, what shall we do?” [38] Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
5) “Brothers, WHAT SHALL WE DO?”
•• People with a built-in hunger for God will ask, “WHAT shall we DO?” Give the full bible answer.
• Repent ... be baptized ... receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
•• If YOU give the RIGHT BIBLE ANSWERS to these bible questions, the word of God will change your life eternally!
Preached at South Valley Church, Phoenix, Oregon, May 29, 2005
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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of the Zondervan Corporation. All rights reserved.
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© 2005, James H. Feeney, All rights reserved.
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More free online bible study and free sermon outlines on speaking in tongues, divine healing, gifts of the Holy Spirit, pro-life vs. pro-choice, traditional marriage, apostles and Christian prophets today, divine inspiration, and more may be linked to or viewed at Online Bible Studies and Free Sermons by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D. (http://www.jimfeeney.org). |
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